On Really Seeing Children – Part 2.
So, after reading yesterday’s post, I wonder if you’ve figured out what type of adult you might be to the children in your life? Are you the type that avoids interaction with children, or the type that really sees them? Or do you sometimes slip between the two and thank God for the forgiving nature of children? (Yep, that’s probably me!)
Apart from the two aspects that I wrote about yesterday (Taking time to get to know children, and Encouraging the potential within the child) there is another important thing seeing adults can do:
My heart was captured for mission very early!
Invite children to participate in the world beyond themselves.
Childhood can naturally be a very inward focused time of life. A child’s worldview is intimate and immediate. It’s how we were designed to learn, starting with those close to us and gradually opening up. There comes a time, however, when the worldview of children needs to be challenged to include those beyond their immediate circles. This is fundamentally a missional shift and it links very closely with who the child is and where their potential lies.
I believe God puts action against injustice and poverty as a core part of our personhood. Being made in his image compassion and empathy are hardwired into us – and that includes children. Often the immense brokenness of the world (I wrote about it briefly in a previous post) tempts us to keep the age of ‘childhood’ as an idyllic fun, filled, time of bouncing on trampolines and chasing kittens. Don’t get me wrong I’m all for trampolines and kittens – but when we see the compassion in a child, and realise the potential to raise a voice, or advocate against injustice, seeing adults need to provide opportunities for children to act. So how do we do this?
Provide child friendly information sessions
If you have the opportunity to raise awareness of an issue, or educate your church about a mission project, try to plan an event where children are welcome. Child friendly time-slots, lots of visuals, hands on activities are all great techniques. Exposure to these things allows a child’s heart to expand and you never know what God may be doing, or calling, in a child’s life.
Allow children to join your team
When kids do mission, or participate in advocacy events, alongside adults they gain not only a sense of inclusion, but of purpose. Doing is always a better way to learn than telling, especially for kids. Involving children in service teaches them habits of faith in action that are likely to remain with them forever.
Seek out opportunities for children to contribute
Logistically a child may be held back from many kinds of advocacy, service and mission opportunities. But there are so many things children can do. When writing to your local government about an issue of social justice, why not encourage your children to do the same? When raising money to support a missionary, allow children to join the brainstorming sessions. There are so many ideas and ways children can help in appropriate ways.
What ideas have you used to invited children to participate in the world beyond themselves?
Penny Reeve wrote the Tania Abbey novels as a means of answering the question: ‘What can an 8, 9 or 10 year old do to serve God and respond to the world’s poor?’
For more information visit www.pennyreeve.com
It’s a challenging and thought-provoking topic.
How do you encourage the issues of justice and mercy, addressing poverty and other “social justice” issues, without that becoming your “gospel”. We were reading Matthew 9:1-8 this morning – Jesus knew what the man needed most was forgiveness… But he also met his immediate, physical needs. We can’t ignore the gospel while addressing injustice, but we also can’t just preach the gospel and ignore the physical needs, James 2:14-17 makes that pretty clear, also.
On another front, how do you balance the dire needs of those far removed from us – people in countries who don’t even have access to clean water, for example – and the less dire but still pressing needs of those closer to us – people in our street, and in our suburb? Where should our focus lie? With the people God has put in our lives and our neighbourhoods, or with people in far off places whose needs are so dire and can be helped dramatically by small amounts of money (such as less than $30 funding sight-saving surgery, for example)?
Then there’s bigger questions of forcing western outlooks on non-western countries and foreign organisations taking over where local people could be trained… But that’s a bigger issue and a country-by-country, organisation-by-organisation issue, rather than a theological issue.
I think the thing is, there are no easy answers and probably no perfectly right answers…
Liz, you raise valid points. We have to acknowledge that no one person can solve all the problems they are aware of. That is where we must learn to lean on the Holy Spirit to direct our efforts.
In Bible times people only knew about the needs of those with whom they came in contact. Today it is easy to become overwhelmed with all the needs in the world.
Penny’s post shares a very valid point. We must be purposeful to help our children to see the needs of others and to encourage them to do what they can to help.
Thanks Liz, for your comments. It’s great to hear of a family grappling with these issues!
One of the things I love about involving children in areas of mission/service/advocacy for those without a voice is, that it is an opportunity for them to interact with the very heart of God. When we read the Bible it is so clear that God’s heart is for wholeness, for orphans being cared for and widows being blessed etc. So when we step into action in these areas we learn more about God’s heart at the same time.
I believe the Kingdom of God is about our relationship with God, through the saving work of Jesus – but it’s also about how that kingdom spills out into the world that does not acknowledge Jesus as Lord.
I agree that sometimes the needs – local and further afield – can be overwhelming! I remember hearing someone once say “What am I supposed to pray for? If I prayed all the prayer notes I receive in the mail I’d be at prayer all day long!” And that’s where I think Janice’s comment about the work of the Holy Spirit comes in. For me I know there are so, so many needs. But what does God as me, personally, to respond to by his strength?
As is already obvious, I’m very passionate about educating children about global issues and needs, but also believe we need to respond to those needs immediate to where God has placed us. One of the reasons we chose to have our third child through foster care.
Regarding your point about local vs outside organisations imposing change etc. Very good point, but you are right: it is something that changes as you look at organisations and countries. One thing I try hard to do, even when sharing the Bible with kids in Australia, is to look closely at what God is actually saying and try to dissect that from the cultural understanding I may have built up over the years. So, in one sense it is a theological issue – especially if the spoken of organisations are working under the ‘Name of Jesus’. In aid and development work, just as in spiritual formation, lasting differences are made when change comes from the inside – and that’s not something an outside can impose. Between the two of us we’ve probably written a whole other blog post! But thanks for raising all these issues for us to think through. Sometimes I think that’s half of the journey, anyway, being open to think things through…